74 EB Sandrunner under development

[sstlaure]

Sorry....I meant I have rec'd the swaybars. I have to fab the mounts. Still looks like the pics above with all tires off and on jackstands with the suspension full compressed.

The short one with the angled arms is for the front. It will pass through the frame underneath the front tub body support.

The long one w/straight arms is for the rear and will be above the frame in front of the axles. The arms will be cut and have an S-curve to them to space them laterally out from the frame to run outside of the shock bodies.

I've got all the heims and material for the links & tabs needed.

All I need now is the time to do the work.

 

[68ford]

what rear springs did you end up running? did you retain the stock front hanger?

 

[sstlaure]

I ended up with a 1645F53 Deaver (60" long - I believe it's an early 80's F-series spring...SUUUPER soft). I did keep the front hanger (kind of). I ended up having to gut most of the mount, but I kept the inside surface & hole location to keep everything square. It's a 3" wide spring, so I had to widen the mount, and move the perches on the axle. I also made custom rear hangers/shackles to accommodate the new springs (you can see those at the top of pg 13) The lower mount for the rear shackle is about 2" behind the body, at full compressed, the top is about 6" behind the body.

I'm real happy with how everything is coming out, just wish it was going faster, but with family and work commitments, the Bronco gets time when I get time.

I thought I had pics of the front mounts, but looking back I guess I missed that. My wife took the camera this weekend, otherwise I'd post one up.

 

[sstlaure]

You can somewhat make out the front mounts in 2 of these pics...

Other 2 show the shackles and hangers for the rear.

 

[Slick]

so... they STILL haven't came out with the matching rear glass fenders yet?

...why don't you use those rocky roads rear fenders! hehe, be a good weight loss program 4 ya too, as you'd prolly toss yer lunch every time ya saw them!

I kid, but that thing is look'n SWEET!

I am curious how well the winsheild support will hold up tho. I had a simmilar set up (minus the cross brace) and the constant shake'n still mannaged to SNAP the steel strap/plate welded to the cage! Mine was welded to the cage and bolted to the winsheild frame.

HOPE ya better luck there than I did! Otherwise, it looks like a Chevy eater!!!

 

[sstlaure]

Winshield tabs are 3/16" thick, we've got a similar set-up on my friend's EB, but without the gussets, and it has held up fine.

No....no matching bodysides yet. Still holding out hope, but if I don't see something by early spring, I'll be going a different route. (but definitely not RR style...)

 

[sstlaure]

Rear swaybar progress....

Worked on getting the rear swaybar installed.......and my garage buddy

 

[68ford]

might be just the pics, but i dont think the swat bar will work mounted there, looks like the links will be too short and limit droop. all sway bars ive seen in long travel setups, have the arms about flat at ride height. theas your axle drrops the end links will bcome straight with the arms and they could flop under. maybe just pics, but i would install links and cycle before commiting to any placement.
links may need to go through floor at full compresion.

 

[68ford]

the angle between link and arm at ride height should be real close to 90 degrees to be most effective i think.

 

[sstlaure]

The arms still have some length to be added (probably 4-5") with the brackets that the heims bolt into, so the links will be running vertically down to the axle. The arms will angle slightly upward at full compressed to maximize the length of the links. The suspension there still has about 4" inches to go before full compression. (stroke of the airbumps), and ride height is about 4" off the bumpstops. Angle is going to be real close to 90 degrees between link/arm when I'm done.

The length of the total sway bar arm is almost the same as the distance from the front eye to the center pin of the leaves. At ride height, the angle of the arm is about the same and pivots in parallel with the front spring eye of the link pack (think similar to how a track bar and drag link operate in parallel equal length paths.)

For the link to completely flatten out to the arms, there would have to be a change in length from the axle forward greater than the length of the bar arm + the length of the link. It doesn't change that much, but everything in there is just tacked and I always cycle everything to confirm it doesn't bind (note the single leaf and spacer block in the pack). Good advice though...too many people don't cycle their suspension and they find out way too late the something doesn't work.

Any pics of your swaybar set-up? (I like the new halfcab look in your galllery...cool rear cage. Did you ditch the leaf springs?)

 

[68ford]

i dont have a sway bar yet, waiting on that. the truck is far from done. i ended having deaver make me a set leafs. they are roughly a foot longer, i think they are based on the ranger race pack. and i bought a set of camburg shackles which are about 7in long. went with a 3in dia tripple bypass hoping to not need air bumps but we'll see. ill post pics soon, has sustom spring mounts front and rear to keep it low. axle to frame distance at ride height is the same as stock eb, going to need to trim more ;D

 

[sstlaure]

3" triple....nice.

 

[bronko69er]

See if bax will sell you his tie rod to go with those leaf blocks.
Looking good!

 

[68ford]

yeah they hurt the checking account ;D
thing are huge, there 16in travel and the lower mount is on side of axle housing as low as i could get it, and they are still almost above the bedside.
wasnt going to go with such a big shock, but with duel spaeres outside the rear of the truck and 40gal of fuel................
and i can move my 2.5tripple up to the front.

on the subject, what thickness of shims did king set you up with on your front shocks? did you order the c/o and bypass at the same time?

 

[sstlaure]

I don't have my front bypasses yet. I was using my rears for mock-up. The coil-overs were valved under the assumption they were going to run solo (now not the case) so I'll have to re-valve those when I buy the extra set of bypass shocks for the front. It's been so long since I bought them at this point I have no idea whch shim stacks I have in them.

 

[sstlaure]

Rear swaybar all in position

Got the endlinks, arm to axle links and all the tabs fabbed up and welded in over the Thanksgiving holiday (used up some Vacation time I hadn't been able to use this year.)

Some of the pics are at full compressed, some at 13.5" extension (so it still has another 2" to go to full extended.) No worries about the swaybar flopping over, everything cycles great. On to the next project.....

 

[sstlaure]

Some suspension cycling and got the pass side leaf spring re-assembled and re-installed.

 

[toddz69]

Some suspension cycling and got the pass side leaf spring re-assembled and re-installed.

Scott: Is the bumpstop hitting your leaf spring at ride height? And are you using the leaf as the "target" for the bumpstop?

Todd Z.

 

[sstlaure]

The suspension is set at ride height to be right in the middle of the 16" of travel for the shock (8" compression/8" droop). At ride height the bumpstop is ~4" off the leaves. Yes, the leaf springs are what is being used for the bumpstops to react off of in the rear. (I believe Ironbender's rig is like this in the rear if I remember the magazine article correctly...One of the pics showed a similar set-up.) I went this way in order to get the bumpstops as far from the centerline of the truck as possible to make sure if the suspension articulated that it still hit the bumpstop.

This pic is at ride height.

 

[BALCH-Autoworx]

Scott,
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